To the Editor:
The attack on the U.S. Capitol yesterday was a brazen attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the presidential election results and to overthrow the will of the American people. It was an assault on far more than the U.S. House and Senate: it threatened the very foundation of our republic.
We’re all shaken by this violent reminder of our broken politics and how urgently we need to find a way forward.
Our problems have deep and complex roots that go far beyond electoral rules. But making our representative democracy work demands changing the incentives of how to get elected and stay in office. Until we reform our elections, too many of our political leaders will be incentivized to reinforce these divides and deepen polarization.
We can fix it by simple acts in Congress and the states. Our vision is a future in which political leaders collectively win elections by appealing to everyone—a Congress for every American, in the words of the 2018 New York Times editorial endorsing the Fair Representation Act. The Fair Representation Act would establish the proportional form of ranked choice voting for congressional elections, combining the virtues of ranked choice voting with a fair alternative to the bitterness that today flows from binary, winner take all politics. It would dramatically shift political incentives to ensure our political leaders respond to all of us.
While we build support in Congress for this fundamental change, we can dramatically improve our elections with ranked choice voting in states and cities around the nation. To that end, we will come to you soon with an invitation to participate in the first-ever annual Ranked Choice Voting Day—fittingly, on January 23rd (1/23).
Thank you for your continued commitment to better elections for all Americans.
Rob Richie
Rob:
Keep hammering. There’ll be no end to this madness until we shake up this duopoly.
The Editor